Training for Public Speaking

I am just putting together a swathe of lectures for this winter, aimed at all three sectors of my business – Business, Sailing and Life. I have a lot of talks in the past and decided to upgrade my skills with a touch of training. I chose Cordelia Ditton of www.voicebusinesstraining.co.uk to help me, and I am so pleased I did! I had a great day, and the training tackled many more areas than I had thought may be on the cards.

Now, I know how and when to relax before a speech, how my voice works and to warm up my vocal chords (by singing in the shower!) and how to present myself in those oh-so-critical first minutes of standing in front of an audience. What was also invaluable that Cordelia helped me to put the whole endeavour in a strategic context, and showed me ways of creating a cohesive talk. I also learnt the value of ‘the pause’ in punctuation to generate the full effect of the words spoken.

Above all, I had fun! If public speaking is a chore for you, award yourself a spot of voice training to gain confidence and capability.

NLP by the Sea

In order to transfer my coaching skills from the world of sport to Life Coaching, I chose to empower myself by learning about NLP. I chose a great course - practical, hands-on and ethical – with Pegasus NLP www.nlp-now.co.uk , and what I have learnt fits me like a glove.

Last weekend, one of the Pegasus ‘graduates’ hosted a conference in Bournemouth. It lived up to its aim of being exploratory and fun. I finally started to get to grips with some of the language patterns which had eluded me before (Milton for those who know) and I learnt a lot about cooking with my senses ( I now know I never smelt ingredients before unless I suspected they were off, and only tasted food in the final stages before adding salt & pepper). Neil Connolly and Ben Reeve from www.idevelop.co.uk enabled me to discover all of this. I also met Wendy Sullivan www.smallchangecompany.co.uk face to face and what a professional lady! She led me through a ‘clean language – discover your metaphorical landscape session’ and was exceptionally clever in her questioning.

Of course the other great part was meeting with old friends and new acquaintances. The atmosphere at this event was so friendly it was like meeting people having shed that first defensive skin that we human beings tend to put up to the world. A lovely weekend!

The Past and History

When I want to stretch my mind, I turn to Science Fiction. I like the odd twists and alternative realities contained therein. I find myself diverted, astounded, shocked or smiling as the vehicle of fiction enables me to suspend my disbelief in what I am reading.

Mary Gentle’s books often deal with alternative realities, time travel and the ‘what could have been’ or ‘may be yet’ of history. I’ve just read a short story called ‘The Logistics of Carthage’, a pre-quel novella to her novel ‘Ash’ and in her afterward she gives her own definition of the difference between history and the past.

She says;
‘The past happened. It’s just that we cannot recover it. History is what we can recover, and it’s a collection of fallible memories, inconvenient documents, disconcerting new facts and solemn cultural bedtime stories.

….those inconvenient things on which history is based: memoirs, archaeological artefacts, fakes, scholarship tussles and quantum mechanics.’

Quantum mechanics? My mind is boggling.

My thoughts keep coming back to this definition, especially when I read of attempts to ‘re-write history’, or the publication of new school history books in new regimes in the world, or the jailing in Austria of the Englishman who denies the Holocaust happened. What are the facts on which I base my view of the world? What about other people? What is the boundary between fact and fiction? How did the writers of the history text books used in my schooling – the last time I am aware I read a ‘history’ book - decide which facts to put in, and which to leave out?

Wouldn’t life be boring if we were all the same?

Satisfying work

In the last couple of weeks a number of my Life Coaching clients have come to the conclusion of their issues. The journeys they chose to undertake have proved to be so rewarding that I find myself smiling just at the memory of those final moments. I do enjoy the work I do. I’m lucky.

Talent Coaching in Business and Sport

I am an Associate with Berkshire Consultancy Ltd. http://www.berkshire.co.uk/ Recently we’ve been working on delivering Talent Coaching for a couple of businesses. The companies involved have identified talented individuals that they wish to develop not just in process skills but also maturity of outlook so the programme is a mix of nuturing and hard challenge. The coaching is done in real time, with real projects so that the performance of these ‘Talents’ can make a real difference to their futures.

At times the role we play moves into education – especially about business processes, techniques and people management to ensure the projects do not fail from lack of knowledge. At other times, we may adopt the role of mentor to pass on experience. However the central approach is to coach these high flyers through the issues they confront – helping them make measured decisions in the face of risk, to reflect and to grow into their responsibilities and capabilities.

I am struck with how similar this is to sports coaching at elite level. Treating top talent as individuals and helping them realise their potential so that you see them begin to fly is the development nub of elite sports coaching. It is often assumed that sport has a relevance to business – in this case there is a direct parallel. High achievers in sport and business have lots in common despite the arena for action being so different. Certainly the coach's crux is the same - when to support or when to challenge your keen and driven charge.

RYA Junior Topper Squad 2006 at Lake Garda

Beautiful Lake Garda, Italy - Topper Worlds venue